6
$\begingroup$

Let $\gamma_1$ and $\gamma_2$ be simple closed curves in $R^4.$ Let $\lambda= x_1 dy_1+ x_2dy_2.$ Suppose that $\int_{\gamma_1} \lambda= \int_{\gamma_2} \lambda.$

I am looking for a reference for the following statement: there exists an isotopy $\{\gamma_t\}$ through simple closed curves such that $\int_{\gamma_t} \lambda$ is constant.

The existence of a smooth isotopy is clear from general position. It seems intuitively obvious that one can just continuously modify the isotopy to ensure that the integral is constant. I am fairly confident that I can write down a proof, but it seems like it would be quite lengthy. I feel like this statement is surely already in the literature (or should follow easily from more general theorems in the literature).

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Your recommended idea does not seem to take into account the result is true for that special 1-form and not any. Where do you think you''ll use that? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 6, 2018 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ I don't know a full answer to this question, but observe for instance that my suggestion would clearly fail if the 1-form vanished in some subset of R4 whose complement is disconnected. It's important for my suggestion that the integral can always be made slightly bigger or smaller by slightly modifying the curve. $\endgroup$
    – user142700
    Commented Apr 6, 2018 at 21:40

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

This is not an answer but an idea. If you can show that there is an Lagrangian embedding of $f:S^1\times [0,1]\to\mathbb{R}^4$ such $f|_{S^1\times \{0\}}=\gamma_0$ and $f|_{S^1\times \{1\}}=\gamma_1$, then you are done. Indeed, the Lagrangian (also known as isotropic) embedding is an embedding such that the pullback of the symplectic form $\omega=dx_1\wedge dy_1+dx_2\wedge dy_2$ is zero. Then for $\gamma_t=f|_{S^1\times \{t\}}$ we have that $\int_{\gamma_t}\lambda=\int_{\gamma_0}\lambda$ by the Stokes theorem since $d\lambda=\omega$. Whether such an embedding always exists, I do not know, but there is an extensive literature about Lagrangian embeddings. I am just not an expert in this field.

For example if the curves $\gamma_0$ and $\gamma_1$ are in symplectically orthogonal subspaces (for example $x_1y_1$ and $x_2y_2$), then after a suitable reparametrization of them you can find a Lagrangian homotopy between them (see Lemma 2.2 in [1]). However, it will only be a homotopy and not necessarily isotopy.

[1] D. Allcock, An isoperimetric inequality for the Heisenberg groups. Geom. Funct. Anal. 8 (1998), 219–233.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ I think this is a good idea and I agree that the existence of such an embedding would imply the claim. However, I think that the existence of a Lagrangian cylinder connecting two curves of equal area is in general not true (although I don't know an easy counterexample). I think it's also important to observe that it's not hard to construct isotopies of curves of constant area which don't trace out a Lagrangian. $\endgroup$
    – user142700
    Commented Apr 7, 2018 at 0:57

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .